Document conveyer for photographic apparatus and control therefor



- June 6, 1933. R. s. HOPKINS ,70

DOCUMENT CONVEYER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIG APPARATUS AND CONTROL THEREFOR Original Filed Dec. 29, 1928 a Sheets-Sheet 1 June 6, 1933. R. s. HOPKINS I 1,912,703

DOCUMENT GONVEYER.FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS AND CONTROL THEREFOR Original Filed Dec. 29. 1928 I 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I I im 7A\\\\\\ 55 I 1+ 1.10" %mi?\\\\\\ I 1 gwuemtoz:

lioySJiopkizm June-6, 1933'. R, HOPKINS 1,912,708

DOCUMENT CONVEYER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS AND CONTROL THEREFOR Original Fi1ed*Dec.- 29. 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Jwumtov:

121 s.11 km,

Patented June 6, 1933 "UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROY S. HOPKINS, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO -EASTMA 'N KODAK GOM- PANY, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK DOCUMENT GONVEYER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS CONTROL THEREFOR This invention relates to documentrecording machines and particularly to machines for making a photographic record of a series of individual documents or sheets which vary considerably in size. One object of my invention is to provide a document-conveying apparatus by which the documents may be moved to a recording position. Another object of my invention is to provide a document-conveying device having a power drive and having a means for connecting the power drive with the conveyer actuated by placing a document on or feeding a document toward the conveyer. Another object of my invention is provide a conveyer which may be moved a distance suitable for the length of the document to be recorded. Another object of my invention is to provide a means actuated by the document itself for causing the conveyer to move the required distance. Another object of my invention is to provide a pneumatically-operated clutch between the power drive and aconveyer by which the conveyer may be moved. my invention is to provide a conveyer interconnected with a photographing machine-in reference machine constructed in accordance with and i such a way that the machine will photograph documents during pauses in the movement of'the conveyer. Still another object of my invention is to provide a documentphotographing apparatus with a strip which is actuated by feeding a document towards'the conveyer, and other objects will appear from the following specification, the novel features being particularly ointed out in the claims at the end thereof? Coming now to' the drawings wherein like characters denote like parts throughout,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevation, partly in section, of a document-recording of the device shown in Fig. 2;

Another object 'of' Original application fi1ed Decem ber 29, 1928, Serial No. 829,143. Divided and this application filed September 29, 1931.

Serial No. 565,802.

photographing apparatus operating mechamsm;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation showing a portion of the gearing used in the mechanism housing of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary showing of the clutc -operating mechanism also used in the housing included in Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a part section, part side elevation of still another embodiment of my invention; and

Fig. 9 is a side elevation of the conveyeroperating mechanism used in the embodiment of jmy invention shown in the first seven. Figures.

This application is a division of my copending application for Document conveying and photographing machine, filed December 29, 1928, Serial No. 329,143.

Broadly speaking, the function of the document-recording machine is as follows: Separate documents, such as checks, letters, deeds, or other papers, may be photographically recordedby merely dropping the document into a document-directing device. This automatically actuates a conveyer which moves the document into the field of a photographing apparatus, holds the document still momentarily, actuates the camera to make a picture of the document while so held, moves down a fresh area of film in the recording position.- If the document is of greater length than can be made by a single exposure, the machine functions one or more times, as may be necessary, the conveyer being automatically actuated through a series of steps. 1

In the preferred form of my invention shown in Figs. 1 to 7 inclusive, the recording machine may consist of a housing 1 of any suitable type, in which there is mounted a document-directing device 2-, which preferably consists of a chute having a tapering rear wall 3, a tapering front wall 4 and side walls 5 which direct a document D toward the narrow opening 6 through which the documents may pass to a conveyer designated broadly as 7.

In order to confine a central portion of the document to a narrow path, a web or fin 8. is placed on the wall 4 and a guiding strip 9 lies over the central portion of the rear wall 3. Thus, any documentdropped into the chute will have the central portion of the document brought close to the control box 10.

Since the conveyer is similar to the conveyer shown in my copending application, Serial No. 237,467, filed December 3, 1927 for Document photographing apparatus, it need not be here fully described except to say that it may consist of a belt 11 passing over a roller 12 which is power driven through shaft 13 by a sprocket 14 and which is provided with Wires 15 for holding the documents against the conveyer.

The structure of the conveyer is immaterial. as the present invention relates to a means for automatically actuating the conveyer. as will be hereinafter more fully described.

The conveyer 7 moves the documents step by step into the field of View of a photographing apparatus, which is broadly designated at 16 and which may be a camera similar to that shown in my above mentioned application. The method of operating the camera and the mechanism for accomplishing the desired result is different from my above mentioned application and'forms a part of the subject matter of this invention.

The means for moving the conveyer 7 will be first described. The control box 10, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, may consist of a hollow chamber having an air opening 17 of elongatedshape behind which the. end 18 of an .air pipe 19 is placed. This pipe leags to a bellows 20, being attached thereto at 1.

The bellows, as indicated in Fig. 4, has a movable top plate 22 and a balance weight 23 normally turns this top plate about a hinge 24 so that the parts lie in the full-line position in Fig. 4. When, however, air is drawn through pipe 19, this moves from the full to the broken-lined position, thus causing an arm 25 to slip away from arm 26 which, as. best shown in Fig. 7, permits the clutch-tripping member 27 to move past a latch 28 and to permit a clutch to function in the following manner.

Arm 27 carries a roller 29 riding on the cam 30. This cam, together with the sleeve 31 and arm. 32, may slide along a shaft and these parts are normally impelled by a spring 34 to the-right of-this'Figu're.

When the arm 27 is released, the spring thrusts arm 32 to the right and causes pin 35, which passes through an aperture in gear 36 and thence'to enter into a tooth of aclutch face 37 on the inside of gear 38. this gear being continuously driven by power through the worm 39, shaft 40 and sprocket 41, which is attached by a chain to a suitable source of power, such as an electric motor.

-So long as the arr. 26 does not catch behind arm 25 it is free to move up and down, and durlng this period of time, arm 27 will move back and forth between the two positions indicated in Fig. 7, this back and forth movement being caused by the roller 29 following the curved face 30 of the cam. When, however, the arm 26 is held in its lowermost position, arm 27 will slide behind the end of latch 28, which is p1voted at 41a to arm 26 and will thus be held in the position shown in Fig. 5. Vhen 111 this position, as the high part of the cam 30 reaches the roller 29, the clutch arm 35 Will be withdrawn from the gear 3.8 and the mechanism carried by shaft 33, as will be hereinafter more fully described, will cease to move. Arm 27 is pivoted at 42 to the gear box 43.

As above explained, gear 38 rides idly on shaft 33, this shaft being turned by the sleeve 31 which is mounted to slide on this shaft, but to turn with it. Shaft 33 also carries a gear 44. Referring to Fig. 6, gear 44 meshes with a gear 45 which carries a slide 46 and a pin 47 which, with the star wheel 48, forms a Geneva gear. The Geneva 48 may drive a shaft-49. Gear 45 meshes with a segmental gear 51 having teeth and having a smooth periphery 52 between the teeth for intermittently driving a small gear 53, which is provided with a slide 54 and whlch is mounted on a shaft 56.

As shown in Fig. 9, shaft 33 lies in front of a second shaft 57. Gear 36 is provided with teeth 58 and a slide 59 for intermittently operating a gear 60 which is provided with teeth at 61 and a slideway at 62. Thus, one operation of shaft 57 is obtained to each operation of gear 36, although the first-mentioned shaft moves during half the time required for the movement of gear 36.

As shown in Fig. 5, shaft 57 projects out to one side of the gear box 43 and carries a sprocket Wheel 63, which is connected by a chain 64 to a sprocket 14 carried by a I shaft 13, which actuates the conveyer.

The conveyer is, with the mechanism above described, moved one step at each actuation of gear 36. The movement occurs during approximately a half of a revolution of the gear 36, so that the conveyer moves and stands still through a single actuation of this gear.

Documents automatically actuate the mechanism above described in the followbox 10. This interrupts the passage of air into this box, since there is a suction in box created by a blower 65 which sucks air through pipe 66 attached at 67 to box 10. As soon as the 0 ening 17 is closed by a document, air is di'awn through a pipe 19, causing bellows 20 to function and causing arm to release arm 26, which permits the clutch arm to enter the gear 37. The bottom of the document is caught by the conveyer and is moved downwardly and as long as a portion of the document covers up the opening 17, the arm 25 will be held in the broken-lined positions, Fig. 4. When, however, the document passes the opening 17, the weight 23 will draw arm 25 back to its original position, so that arm 27 will be held in its position in Fig. 5. The mechanism will then continue to function until the cam is drawn to the left by means of wheel 29 In other words, this clutch can be operated at each revolution of gear 36 or any multiple of a revolution of gear 36, and for each revolution of gear 36 the conveyer will move down a predetermined distance and stop for a predetermined time. For this reason a series of single narrow documents, such as checks, may be successively photographed one after another, one at a time, or longer documents, such as letters, deeds, and the like, may be photographed in a number of sections equivalent to the amount that the conveyer moves at each actuation. It is, of course,possible to photograph a long endless band, in which case the clutch would remain in during the entire operation and would be released only when the end of the document had passed the control box 10.

During the pause of the conveyer 7, the documents held against the conveyer by the wires 15 may be photographed with any suitable camera which .is operated in the proper time relation to the conveyer. Referring to Fig. 5, such a camera may include a shutter having a blade 68 operated the worm and gear 69 and 70, the latter being aflixed to shaft 56 which, as above described, is; intermittently rotated by the mutilated gears 51 and 53. This shutter is so timed that it will open and make an exposure only while a document remains stationary in the field of exposure.

,Film may be moved by means of a rubber roller 71 which is mounted on shaft 49, this shaft being driven by the Geneva 47-48, as above described. This action, of course, is timed so that the film will be moved only when the exposure apertures 72 are covered by means of the shutter 68. Thecamera and a magazine for holding film are described in an application filed herewith, Se-

rial No. 329,144, for Photographic camera rl rggazme construction, filed December 29,

With the document-recording apparatus, as above described, it is only necessary to drop the separate documents into the docubodiment of my invention, obviously many changes can be made which will come within the scope of my inventions, one of such embodiments being shown in Fig. 8.

In this Figure the document recorder may comprise a housing 80 having a document conveyer or chute 81 into which documents may be fed. This chute may be similar to that shown in Figs. 1 and 2, except that I have shown here a wire guide 82 for directing a part of the document against an opening orifice 83.

83 constitutes the end of a tubular member 84 leading to a blower 85; this blower can be operated through a belt 86 from a motor 87.

Tube 84 is provided with a branch 88 leading to a bellows 89 attached to an arm 90 hinged at 91 and carrying a switch member 92 adapted to make a contact with the posts 93, so as to actuate a solenoid 94.

This solenoid may operate a clutch arm 95 so that a shaft parallel to shaft 96 may be power driven by means of the motor 87.,

This clutch, therefore, permits the belts 97 and 98 to be driven to actuate the camera mechanism 99 and the conveyer mechanism 100. So far as thesetwo mechanisms go, reference may be had to my copending application, Serial No. 237,467, above identified for the details of this construction.

In order to actuate the solenoid control clutch 95, a document may be dropped into a chute so that the guide 82 will thrust a portion of the document over the orifice 83, causing the suction through pipe 84 and pipe 88 to move down the bellows 89 and operate the switch 9293. In order to be sure that the clutch is released, the following mechanical device is provided: Shaft 101 is power driven through the chain 97 Arm 108 is pivoted at 109 that it may oscillate between full and broken-lined positions, 7, once for each downward movement of the conveyer 100. Arm 108 is provided with an offset head 109 which moves partially over the orifice 83, so that after a document has closed this orifice, the offset head 109 ismoved down so as to position the document from the orifice, allowing air to again enter. This, of course, releases the pressure in pipe 88 and permits the bellows to again move to its uppermost position under the influence of a spring 110. Since, however, the offset head 109 only momentarily remains over the orifice 108, and again moves ,to its'full-line position, another document or another portion of the same document may cause the clutch to again function.

In practice, this machine is somewhat better suited to smaller-sized documents, such as checks, since there is some strain on the document. due to being struck by the arm 109. It will, however, successfully operate with long documents requiring two or three exposures, although for this purpose the first-described embodimeht of my invention is to be preferred.

Like the'first' described embodiment of my invention, it is only necessary to drop one document after another into the guiding device and as soon as a portion of the document closes or partially closes an orifice adjacent the document conveyer, the conveyer will be automatically caused to move through a fixed path. If the length of the document is such that it is not entirely drawn from the orifice by the conveyer, the conveyer will be again operated, and may be operated intermittently if a continuous strip is to be intermittently and photographically recorded. Both mechanisms automatically actuate a. conveyer in timed relation to a camera, both the-film, documents and the conveyer being held still during the time the shutter of the recording camera is open. These functions are accomplished without attention from an operator.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: r

1. In a photographic document recorder, a conveyer adapted to move documents, a power drive for the conveyer including a clutch, a pneumatic clutch-trip including a tube having a terminal adjacent said conveyer, whereby a document fed to the conveyer may cause the pneumatic clutch trip to function.

2. In a photographic document recorder,

a conveyenadapted to move documents, a.

a conveyer adapted to move documents, a

power drive for said conveyer, a pneumatic the aperture in the suction chamber by a document fed toward said conveyer.

5. In a photographic document recorder, a conveyer adapted to move documents, a power drive for said conveyer including a clutch, a pneumatic clutch trip including an apertured air chamber adjacent said conveyer, a tube and a bellows, said bellows actuating said clutch trip when actuated through the closure of the aperture in the air chamber by a document fed to the conveyer.

6. Ina photographic document recorder, a conveyer adapted to move documents, a

power drive for said conveyer including a clutch, and a pneumatic means for operating said clutch, said means including an air chamber, a fan, and a plurality of tubes, one tube terminating near said conveyer, said fan being adapted to normally draw air through the tube terminating near the conveyer, but being adapted ,to draw air through the other tube when the first tube is closed by a documentbeing fed to the conveyer, connections between said tube and clutch.

7. In a photographic document recorder, a conveyer adapted to move documents,-a power drive for said conveyer includin a clutch, a pneumatic clutch trip inclu mg an apertured air chamberadjacent said conveyer, a tube and bellows, said bellows actuating said clutch. trip when actuated through the closure of the aperture in the air chamber by a document fed to the conveyer, and means separate from the conveyer for moving the document away from the apertured air chamber.

"8. In a photographic document recorder, aconveyer adapted to move documents, a power drive for said conveyer including a clutch, apneumatic clutch trip including an apertured air ehamher adjacent said conveyer, a tube and bellows, said bellows actuating said clutch trip when' actuated through the closure of the aperture in the air chamber by a document fed to the con-- veyer, and means separate from the conveyer for movlng the document away from the apertured air chamber, said means comprising an arm located near the apertured air chamber and adapted to be moved in timed relation to the movement of said conveyer to and from a position in which a document will be thrust from the aperture.

Signed at Rochester,-New York, this 24 day of September, 1931.

ROY S. HOPKINS. 

